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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
473 The rest of the punishments for transgressions are more or less the same as those prescribed to the monks. One thing, however, may be noted, and that is with regard to the 'parihāra'—i.e. keeping the transgressor separate from the group and severing all contact with her. According to the Vyavahārasütra50 the nuns underwent this punishment, while the Byhatkalpabhāşya31 exempted the nuns from undergoing it.
A spotless life and the practice of rigorous discipline was expected of every nun and it was said that a nun could reach the rank equal to that of the upādhyāya after thirty years, and that of an ācāryopādhyāya only after sixty years which shows that the Church was very strict towards them,
Bound by these rules of discipline and working under the different officers of the Church, the nuns lived in groups. No details about the limit put on the number of the members of a group are to be found. The earliest texts refer to as many as five hundred nuns remaining under one head (ganini).52 Later on, it seems that both monks and nuns formed one group (gana) as the expression 'sa-ganicciyāë vā para-ganicciyāë vā nigganthie53 (a nun belonging to one's—i.e. a monk's own gana or to an other gana) suggests. When the ganas gave place to the gacchas, the nuns were grouped in gacchas, which, according to the Mulācāra, consisted of three and seven persons, respectively.54 Touring:
Controlled by these rules and disciplinary regulations, the nuns led a wandering life like that of the monks. In the eight months of summer and winter they wandered from village to village (gāmānugāmaṁ), and no rules fundamentally different from those in the case of the monks are given for this aspect of their life. As a matter of fact, right from the time of the composition of the Acarānga, different texts give a rule starting with the formula: "Je bhikkhū bhikkhuņi vā", or "Niggantho nigganthi va" which shows that the rule was common both to the monks as well as to the nuns. The rules pertaining to the mode of their travel, the time for it, stay at one place during the four months of the rainy season (vassāvāsa), the limit of staying at one place, etc. are almost identical with those for the monks. Only a few distinct rules are henceforth noted.
The nuns were prevented from going beyond Anga-Magadha in the east, Kaušāmbi to the south, Sthūnā to the west, and Kuņāla in the north, for
50. 5, 11-12; also Brh. kalp. 1, 38. 51. Vol. V, p. 1561. 52. For references to wandering groups of nuns: Naya., pp. 151, 173, 224, 53. Nis. 8, 11.
54. Mül. 10, 92. BULL. DCRI.-60
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